“If it seems like this winter has been especially weird in central and northeastern Wisconsin, it might be because of all the record weather events we’ve experienced.
“In a one-month span alone, we’ve enjoyed the warmest temperatures ever recorded for the day, been drenched by record-breaking January rains, shivered in some of the coldest temperatures ever recorded and trudged through historically heavy snowfalls.”
“More than 30 weather records were broken this week in regions across British Columbia due to low temperatures and large amounts of snowfall, said Carmen Hartt, a meteorologist for Environment Canada.”
“Before giving way to downpours and strong winds Tuesday, the heat record had been broken for this date three times in Melbourne [Florida], according to the National Weather Service.
“The previous record for Feb. 12 was set last year at 85 degrees. At noon, the record was tied and an hour later beaten twice. Temperatures continued to climb, reaching 88 degrees by 3 p.m.”
“Forecasters say a massive trough of low pressure loaded with energy from the Gulf of Alaska and a disturbance farther south in the Pacific will begin spreading across [Calfornia] Wednesday, gathering strength as it makes landfall… The moisture could produce as much as 10 inches of precipitation in isolated locations…”
“The National Service of Meteorology and Hydrology [of Bolivia] ssued a red-level hydrological alert for the flooding of at least 15 rivers that threaten to flood more populations in the North of La Paz and at least five departments of the country.
“The head of forecasts, Marisol Portugal, reported that the level of red hydrological threat, is declared when the level of the rivers reach critical heights that make the overflow imminent or when the floods have already started.”
“The National Meteorological Service of Argentina issued a report on Tuesday morning warning of a new heatwave that will affect Patagonia with high temperatures, which will last from Thursday, February 14 to Sunday, February 17, inclusive.
“As detailed, from Thursday 14 until the end of the forecast period (February 17) temperatures will be recorded that may exceed 35 ° C (95f).
“One of the rising uncertainties climate change is bringing to Zimbabwe: The rains have come much later, with the November rainy season beginning as late as January — and when it comes, there’s less of it, sometimes falling for just one day.
“”We’re experiencing the worst style of drought. If we receive rains, it will be like a cyclone: very violent, too windy. Very erratic. So you cannot bank on it. Things are changing every day.””
“Severe heatwave conditions along the length of the Queensland coast [Australia] have brought a record-breaking run of high temperatures to the southern inland town of Roma and unrelenting searing weather to Brisbane…
“The heatwave is impacting the volunteer ‘mud army’ helping with the flood clean-up effort in Townsville.”
“There are fires in NSW, a heatwave in south-east Queensland, the dust is still settling on Sydney and Canberra, and it snowed in Tasmania overnight. There has also been a bushfire emergency warning issued in the past few hours in Albany, Western Australia. How is all of this crazy weather happening at the same time?”
“A massive dust storm brought “hazardous” air to much of NSW on Wednesday, prompting health warnings from authorities as the cloud headed north to Queensland.
“The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage said air quality in the Illawarra and NSW south-west slopes was rated “hazardous” due to the haze, which has also shrouded Sydney.”
“Water is emerging as the biggest threat in the Tasman district [NZ] as “desperate” growers face tougher water restrictions earlier than ever. The financial impact on region of the big dry is expected to run into the millions, potentially outstripping the cost of the forest fire still burning in some of the hills and valleys around the plains.
“Tasman district mayor Richard Kempthorne on Wednesday said the cost to the economy had been assessed at $100m from a 35 per cent water restriction, so a 65 per cent cut would be “significantly greater”.”
“Britain is set to bask in glorious sunshine this Valentine’s Day as temperatures continue to push closer to the 60°F mark in the UK. Forecasters have said that some parts of the UK could reach up to 59°F as loved up Brits prepare for the most romantic day of the year.
“Temperatures have become a lot more mild this week after cold snaps across the UK left many Brits de-icing their cars and wrapping up warm before braving the great outdoors.”
“Warmer summers are causing Antarctic ice shelves to ‘bend’ and buckle under the weight of increased water that puts huge pressure on surface lakes, new research has shown.
“The latest study shows a direct link between surface melting and the weakening of Antarctic ice shelves, the first of its kind to be conducted in the field.
“The formation and draining of lakes that come from ice and snow melting can cause a floating Antarctic ice shelf to ‘flex’ and destabilise, scientists say.
“The extra pressure creates indents in the ice if sufficiently large, and subsequent draining process can then create so much stress that lake basins can weaken and break.”
“As winter storms pummeled the Hawaiian islands early Monday, they didn’t just bring strong winds, tons of rain and dangerous surf. They also dumped snow in beautiful, usually balmy, normally tropical Maui. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources is reporting that snow is falling at the Polipoli State Park on the the Valley Isle, while the white stuff is forecast in some other parts of the state as well.
““For perhaps the first time ever, snow has fallen in a Hawaii State Park. Polipoli State Park on Maui is blanketed with snow,” the agency wrote on its Facebook page Sunday.”
“Severe weather is expected to stretch from coast to coast [USA] Tuesday, with more than 100 million people under some sort of winter watch, warning or advisory; nearly 25 million people under threat of flooding; and more snow on the way in Seattle.”
“Eighteen million trees have died in California since the fall of 2017, even as the state emerged from a years-long drought, according to the USDA Forest Service.
“Federal and state officials say that while tree mortality in the state has actually slowed since the drought was declared over in 2017-2018, the number of trees that have died across 9.7 million acres of federal, state, local and private land since 2010 has reached 147 million.”
“Since 1980, the U.S. has sustained 241 weather and climate disasters where the overall damage costs reached or exceeded US$1 billion, and the total bill for these 241 events exceeds US$1.6 trillion.”
“Tens of thousands of people in Puerto Rico will face water rationing due to increasingly dry conditions in a U.S. territory still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria.
“Gov. Ricardo Rossello said Monday that seven municipalities in the island’s northwest region could be without water for up to 24 hours at a time starting next week.”
“Three of the nine departments of Bolivia were declared on red alert, due to the imminent risk of flooding as a result of an unusually intense rainy season that left 18 dead, 12 missing and more than 2,000 families affected. “Red alert level: due to considerable rainfall, the rivers of the Mamoré and Beni basins will continue to overflow,” the National Meteorology and Hydrology Service (Senamhi) said in a bulletin.”
“Australia has been hit with extreme weather as scorching heat, strong cold fronts and dust storms sweep the nation.
“Temperatures plummeted in southeast Australia today, making the warmest January on record for Victoria and Tasmania seem like a distant memory… As Queensland continues to face catastrophic floods in the far north, a bacterial infection outbreak has been confirmed with one death.”
“Spare a thought for Andrew Solomon tomorrow as the mercury soars in the Garden City. The concreter will be staying hydrated and hitting the shade when he can, with Toowoomba set to hit 37 degrees – 11 degrees above the average maximum for the month. If the mercury tops 37 degrees, it will break the record for the hottest-ever February day, set in 1983… there will be no relief from the heat, with the bureau forecasting a zero per cent chance of rain.”
“Down in the notoriously vulnerable ice sheet of West Antarctica, Pine Island Glacier seems to be breaking up faster than ever, and it’s looking like 2019 might be another busy year.
“The ice shelf calved major icebergs in 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2018—and now, another one is getting ready to break free. The instability of this glacier is not just bad for the southernmost continent. It is bad for the globe.”
“The gathering storm of human-caused threats to climate, nature and economy pose a danger of systemic collapse comparable to the 2008 financial crisis [considerably worse in my view, as we are way more indebted, and energy and resource-constrained, and the biosphere is in even greater disarray] according to a new report that calls for urgent and radical reform to protect political and social systems.
“The study says the combination of global warming, soil infertility, pollinator loss, chemical leaching and ocean acidification is creating a “new domain of risk”, which is hugely underestimated by policymakers even though it may pose the greatest threat in human history.
““A new, highly complex and destabilised ‘domain of risk’ is emerging – which includes the risk of the collapse of key social and economic systems, at local and potentially even global levels,” warns the paper from the Institute for Public Policy Research. “This new risk domain affects virtually all areas of policy and politics, and it is doubtful that societies around the world are adequately prepared to manage this risk.””
“While many bullish (optimistic) investors were attempting to shrug off the European economic slowdown several months ago, including the ECB, claiming a rebound was just around the corner in 2019, the data is here to refute that claim.
“The economic data across the Eurozone has deteriorated at an accelerated pace in 2019 as the probability that the entire Euro Area falls into a recession is rising.”
“Since 2010, the UK has endured its slowest economic recovery on record and the outlook is merely worsening… in December the UK economy contracted by 0.4 per cent…. Manufacturing has now contracted for six months in a row, while business investment has fallen for the last four quarters. By historic standards, the UK is due another recession — defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth — and Brexit (and a global trade war) have merely heightened the risk.
“An already weak economy — too unbalanced, too unproductive and too unequal — now faces the threat of a painful rupture with its largest trading partner.”
“An investigation has been opened into anti-Semitic graffiti which appeared on the front of a bagel restaurant in central Paris at the weekend.
“The word ‘Juden’ (Jews in German) was sprayed in yellow on the front window of a restaurant belonging to the Balgestein chain on the touristy Ile Saint-Louis.”
“Matteo Salvini has raised the possibility of wresting control of Italy’s sizeable gold reserves away from the country’s central bank in the latest in a series of threats to the independence of the Bank of Italy by Rome’s populist coalition.
““The gold is the property of the Italian people, not of anyone else,” Mr Salvini, deputy prime minister and leader of the League party, said in comments to reporters on Monday.”
“Argentine President Mauricio Macri is fighting economic fires on all fronts.
“Rein in inflation and cuts to utility subsidies threaten to rekindle it while also fueling public anger; get a tumbling peso in check by jacking up interest only to find industrial output has hit an almost two-decade low.”
“Promises by Nigerian presidential candidates to fix an economy that vies with South Africa’s to be the continent’s largest could be unfulfilled unless the country is weaned off its oil dependence.
“President Muhammadu Buhari, 76, a former military ruler running for a second four-year term in this week’s vote, has struggled to jump-start the economy and far from lifting growth to the annual 10 percent he promised before the previous election, gross domestic product contracted in 2016.”
“Zimbabwe’s government was on Monday denied reports that it may introduce a new currency this week, amid fears that such a move would worsen the country’s economic crisis.
“Zimbabwe has been without a currency of its own since 2008 when the government ditched the infamous Zimbabwean dollar amid crippling hyperinflation. The highest denominated banknote was Z$100 trillion at the time.”
“Companies and executives around the world are desperately trying to gauge the severity of China’s economic slowdown. But getting a clear picture is very difficult…
“The situation could be even bleaker than China’s official statistics suggest, according to many analysts.”
“The collapse in China of a complex web of debt guarantees involving several private firms highlights risks in its financial system and opens up a potentially hazardous front for an economy in the grip of its slowest growth in nearly three decades.”
Singapore is very much a ‘canary in the coalmine’ for the global economy:
“Retail sales in Singapore fell by 6.0% on a year-on-year basis in December, worsening from the 2.4% decline in the previous month as sales from all segments in the index including motor vehicle sales and computer and telecommunications equipment fell except for medical goods and toiletries and other retail items.”
“Data out this morning show that home loans in Australia slumped by 6.1 per cent in December following a 0.9 per cent decline in the previous month.
“Not only was the drop far bigger than anyone predicted but on a quarterly basis is one of the biggest falls since the series began in 1975. Data of this magnitude was last seen during the 2008-2009 financial crisis.”
“The long-awaited earnings recession has finally arrived, but investors are still too optimistic and should anticipate more disappointment as the year drags on, according to Morgan Stanley.”
“Global central banks may keep interest rates lower for longer… The world economy is set to get fresh insight into whether inflation is turning sluggish again as the U.S. and China publish price data that’s set to endorse the decision of central banks to steer away from tighter monetary policy… While China’s factory inflation reading on Friday will probably show a mere 0.3 percent increase from a year earlier, economists at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. expect a fall back into negative territory for the first time since 2016.”
“There is a significant chance the world economy is headed for a recession in 2019, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. Market participants are increasingly worried about the prospect of a serious economic downturn in the coming months, with a long-running U.S.-China trade war souring business and consumer sentiment.”
“The record books might very well have to be rewritten as farmers in the area of Aroab [of Namibia] measured up to 165 millimetres of rain in the past 24 hours.
“Rain is measured in millimetres and one millimetre of rain represents one litre of water per square metre meaning that on one farm near Aroab as much as 16 and a half litres of water were measured per square metre.
“Heavy rains fell over the breadth of southern Namibia and caused the normally semi desert area to turn into one giant water pan with raging rivers.
“Namwater announced that as much as 385 cubic metres of water was flowing into the Naute dam near Keetmanshoop and floodgates might have to be opened within the next 24 hours. Namwater indicated that residents of the area will be updated as time progresses.
“Although not official, the rain measured is extraordinary…”
“The world’s driest desert is flooding and some of the planet’s wettest woodlands are burning. Welcome to summer in Chile.
“Rains high up in the Andes mountains have led to torrents of water pouring into the Atacama desert below, sweeping away houses and roads… Flooding caused six deaths and destroyed nearly 100 homes… The disasters are part of a pattern of increasingly extreme weather in the country.”
“At least five people were killed and dozens of victims were affected by mudslides in two towns in the Arequipa region of southern Peru, caused by rains in the Andes, officials said Friday. In addition, the Peruvian government on Friday decreed the state of emergency in several municipalities in the southern regions of Moquegua and Tacna (the latter bordering Chile ), due to the “intense rainfall”…”
“The northern hemisphere faced a polar vortex, while Australia during December and January was the hottest on record.
“People and the environment are suffering at both ends of the planet because of the extreme events. Australia’s heatwave has exposed cracks in our unsustainable water, land-use and climate policies.”
“In north-west Queensland it hadn’t rained, any decent rain, for more than five years. When the downpour finally came last week, graziers were elated.
“Now it’s feared up to 500,000 cattle [that estimate has increased from 300,000 last week], mostly from severely drought-stressed herds, have been killed in widespread flood waters.”
“The average air temperatures across the Bay of Plenty [New Zealand] maintained the record numbers that were racked up last year. This January, Tauranga clocked in at 22.1C, a 2.6C spike from usual. This matched the temperature measured last year and continued the area’s record heat for a second year running.”
“With Japan’s northernmost main island locked in a deep freeze caused by the coldest air mass ever recorded here, the temperature plunged to a frigid minus 31.8 degrees in Rikubetsu in eastern Hokkaido on Feb. 9…
“Temperatures in Kushiro and nine other sites hit record lows.”
“Temperatures with the wind chill will make it feel like it’s between –40 and –50 in some parts of the province, prompting an extreme cold warning from Environment Canada.
“”Some parts of Alberta should expect extreme cold conditions to occur in the overnight and morning hours through the weekend and even into Wednesday,” the warning reads.”
“Some areas around Seattle recieved more than 10 inches of snow Saturday, the most in 70 years, the National Weather Service said, and more is on the way two more storm systems close in on the area…
“The National Weather Service said some areas received up to 10.6 inches of snow, already making it the snowiest February since 1949, and the second snowiest February on record.”
“Authorities in Russia’s remote Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya have taken measures to chase away a band of polar bears that had established a reign of terror over locals in recent days.
“Photos and videos on social media showed polar bears entering apartment blocks and other living quarters and rummaging through garbage in the settlement of 3,000.”
“The number of migratory birds coming in from Siberia [to Pakistan] has declined drastically over the past three decades.
“Around 150,000 birds, including local and migratory waterfowl, were estimated to have landed at 12 aquatic ‘stopovers’, which is 70% less than in 2017-2018, according to a survey conducted during the winter season.”
“The continuing Shisper Glacier surge and subsequent creation of a dammed lake has created the fear of another Attabad lake-like disaster in Hunza [Pakistan].
“An assessment report prepared by the Gilgit-Baltistan Disaster Management Authority (GBDMA) has warned that the dammed lake might burst any time and cause immense damage to the local people, critical infrastructure and installations situated downstream.”
A mini-heatwave hitting parts of Spain with temperatures up to 20c (68f) expected. Recent form would suggest that the Iberian peninsular is in for another blisteringly hot summer.
“Here’s a statistic: On Earth, 18 of the last 19 years have been the warmest in recorded history.
“And as both NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced on Wednesday, the last five years have been the five hottest in history — since quality record-keeping began in the 1880s. It’s an unmistakable, accelerating warming trend.
“The globe’s 21st-century heating, however, becomes all the more stark when compared to the coldest years on record. As climate scientist Simon Donner, who researches human-induced climate change at The University of British Columbia, underscored via a list posted on Twitter, the planet’s 20 coldest years all occurred nearly a century ago, between 1884 and 1929.”
“Record heat baked southern South America earlier this week as temperatures soared to 90 degrees, the hottest, southernmost temperature on record.
“Monday, temperatures near the southern tip of South America reached the upper 80s and lower 90s, the hottest it has ever been so far south on Earth.
“Porvenir, Chile (53.25 degrees south latitude), recorded a high of 91 degrees (32.5 degrees Celsius) Monday, while Rio Grande, Argentina (53.80 degrees south latitude), observed a high of 87 degrees (30.8 degrees Celsius), according to Etienne Kapikian, a forecaster at Météo-France.”
“Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second-largest city, awoke to scenes of chaos on Thursday after thrashing wind and rain whipped through neighborhoods, felling trees, flooding streets and sweeping away buses in a storm that killed at least six people…
“The storm came just days after Rio experienced its hottest January in 97 years, with temperatures rising as high as 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 degrees Fahrenheit).”
“A potent storm slammed the central United States on Thursday, bringing a ferocious mix of wild weather from blizzard conditions to flash floods.
“Schools, universities and businesses were closed Thursday in several states as travel proved difficult if not impossible. More than 130,000 customers were without power in Michigan due to the storm… At least five people have been killed.”
“The record high for Birmingham today is 76, set in 1999 and 1957; we are forecasting a high of 78 this afternoon.
“Some communities in west Alabama could touch 80 degrees as our spring preview continues. The day should be dry with a mix of sun and clouds; severe storms are possible north and west of our state ahead of a sharp cold front.”
“Oahu’s North Shore [Hawaii] could see wave heights to a staggering 60 feet Sunday amid a monster swell that forecasters warn could trigger “unprecedented” coastal flooding, the National Weather Service said. A high surf warning has been issued for north- and west-facing shores of Oahu through Sunday night. The swell is being caused by a powerful low pressure system moving toward the islands.”
“Huge chunks of ice have broken off the Tasman Glacier, New Zealand’s largest.
“They have filled up at least a quarter of the meltwater lake at the foot of the glacier in the Aoraki/Mount Cook National Park, reports say. The lake started to form in the 1970s as the glacier rapidly retreated – a phenomenon thought to have been largely caused by global warming.”
“Severe thunderstorms have brought lightning and heavy rainfall to Sydney, with almost 50 millimetres falling in some suburbs during a 30-minute deluge…
“Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Jake Phillips said heavy rainfall over 35mm in half an hour was usually seen once or twice each Sydney summer.”
“Drought conditions in across NSW have re-intensified, despite summer storms bringing some relief along the east coast. In its latest seasonal update, the Department of Primary Industries on Friday said 99.8 per cent of the state is still experiencing drought conditions. Some areas recorded the lowest January rainfall totals in 100 years, while for many it was the driest in two decades.”
“The north-west Queensland floods caused by the same monsoonal rain that put Townsville underwater, have killed up to 300,000 cattle and costs drought-ravaged farmers $300 million.
“It has emerged the promised military fodder drop has been delayed by a communication breakdown between various levels of government and there is a shortage of aviation fuel in flooded farm areas.”
“The calendar finally ticked over into February last week, officially ending the hottest January Australia has ever seen. This is a sobering fact,given that this is a country as used to heat as Ireland is to rain. But the heat is still agonisingly pervasive, and according to meteorologists’ predictions, it does not appear to letting up, either for this summer or beyond into the future.”
“Coldest air mass ever recorded in Hokkaido grips prefecture, with snow expected Saturday in Tokyo… the Meteorological Agency
“…said a cold air mass with a temperature of minus 24.4, the lowest seen since it began compiling such data in 1957, was hovering about 1,500 meters above Sapporo, which saw the mercury drop to minus 12.5 in the morning.”
“The weather in Hong Kong in the past two days was the warmest ever recorded during the first lunar month of the Year of the Pig.
“According to the Hong Kong Observatory, the temperature went as high as 25.8 degrees Celsius at 4 p.m. on Thursday. It was the highest daily maximum air temperature recorded on the third day of the Lunar New Year since the Observatory began keeping track of the records in 1884…”
“Free State Agriculture (FSA) has welcomed the news that the province [in South Africa] has been declared a drought disaster area… Francois Wilken, FSA president, said expressed concern that any aid that may be forthcoming would arrive too late…
“He added… that even if it did rain, it would not be the end of farmers’ struggles, as grazing would take time to grow and crops planted late were at risk from early frost, continued dry spells, and other climatic disasters.”
“A group of top hurricane experts, including several federal researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, published striking new research Thursday, suggesting that hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean have grown considerably worse and that climate change is part of the reason why. The study focused on rapid intensification…”
The frigid air spilling out of the Arctic has been hitting parts of Russia as well as North America:
“Air temperatures in Siberia have been 10-15 degrees lower than average for a long time, and record lows have been registered in many regions. Chief Meteorologist of the Western Siberian Directorate for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring, Renad Yagudin, told TASS that the meteorological station Uchebnaya that is located on the left bank of the Ob River, displayed temperatures a bit lower than -40 degrees in the area on February 6. This is the most frigid in the history of weather monitoring for this date, breaking the previous record of -39.6 degrees.
“In addition, Yagudin said that new lows were set in the Maslyaninsky, Kochenevsky and Iskitimsky districts of the Novosibirsk Region…
“A historic low was also broken in the town of Novokuznetsk, in the Kemerovsky district, which had endured for more than 50 years. “The coldest winter period here was in 1968-1969. If we compare it with this period, we can say that Novokuznetsk broke those records. On February 10, 1969, a temperature of -41.8 degrees was recorded, whereas today the temperature plummeted to minus 42 degrees,” the press secretary of the Kemerovsky Center for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Natalya Poluektova told TASS.”
“Saskatoon shattered a 112 year-old record Wednesday when temperatures fell to – 42.6 C, according to Environment Canada. The previous record was set in 1907 at -41.7 C.
“Environment Canada issued an extreme cold warning Wednesday, prompting the province to remind people of its cold weather strategy, which is providing shelter for people in need.”
“Thawing ice from last week’s extreme cold is jamming up rivers in the Midwest and Northeast — causing evacuations and a big, wet mess. Rapid warmups can cause ice jams in rivers.
“The ice doesn’t crack uniformly, and chunks can temporarily block the river’s flow, causing it to spill inland.”
“Roughly 9,920 Havana residents were forced from their homes by the tornado that hit the Cuban capital 10 days ago, killing six people, injuring 195 others and damaging more than 4,800 residences, Cuban official media reported on Wednesday.
“Most of the displaced people are staying with relatives and friends…”
“The municipality of Rio de Janeiro decreed on Wednesday night the “state of crisis” due to heavy rains, with winds of up to 110 km per hour, which caused flooding, fell trees and created fear of landslides in favelas.
“The Rio Operations Center (COR) asked the Cariocas “to move only in case of extreme need”, to warn the authorities if there are “signs of cracks” in the homes and to be attentive “to the sirens” warning of the risk of landslides.”
“Chile does not manage to get away from extreme weather.
“Last week he was in the news because of a heat wave that has left unprecedented records and, for a couple of days, also due to the floods that are affecting the most arid desert in the world, Atacama . The videos that have been made viral are spectacular…”
“The damage bill is rising in Townsville as deadly floodwaters slowly recede and residents begin to mop up in the wake of record-breaking rainfall.
“In just 10 days, parts of the Far North Queensland city copped the same amount of rain which falls in Melbourne over three years. The Victorian capital, which was also hit with freak storms overnight, receives about 600mm of rain each year, less than a third of what has fallen since the monsoonal trough started ravaging Townsville.”
“With many regions [of New Zealand] tinder-dry, a report on soil moisture shows no improvement ahead. NIWA’s weekly soil moisture report assesses severely to extremely dry conditions.”
“Neither snow nor rain fell in the Seoul metropolitan area throughout the whole month of January, making it the driest January on record, according to the Korea Meteorological Administration.”
“Water shortages and crop failure caused by record-low rainfalls in Pakistan are forcing some farming families to abandon their land, fleeing what officials say is the worst drought to hit the country in years, while others are selling their last breeding animals or seed stocks to survive.
“Authorities and aid groups say conditions are deteriorating in large swathes of Sindh to the south and Balochistan to the west, where both provincial governments have declared emergencies. Disaster management officials say at least 2.8 million people are affected in the two provinces’ worst-hit districts.”
“Pakistan’s northern and northwestern parts have witnessed record snowfall last month which would help raise the water table in the country, officials said…
“Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed the rain and snow calling it a “blessing from God”… Pakistan is running out of fresh water at an alarming rate, experts say, which could spell disaster for the agriculture-based economy.”
““The recent rainfall [in Kwa-Zulul Natal, South Africa] has created a false impression that the drought we experienced from 2015 is over. Our dams have not been replenished to their pre-drought levels and the danger of running out of water is still very real,” said Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube yesterday.
“Dube-Ncube said if the drought persists, the province will have no choice but to impose water restrictions.”
“Billions of tons of meltwater flowing into the oceans from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could boost extreme weather and destabilize regional climate within a matter of decades, researchers said Wednesday.
“These melting giants — especially the one atop Greenland — are poised to further weaken the ocean currents that move cold water south along the Atlantic Ocean floor while pushing tropical waters northward closer to the surface, they reported in the journal Nature.”
“The last four years were the hottest since global temperature records began, the UN confirmed on Wednesday in an analysis that it said was a “clear sign of continuing long-term climate change.”
The UN’s World Meteorological Organisation said in November that 2018 was set to be the fourth warmest year in recorded history…”
[but it was the warmest on record for the oceans and almost certainly the worst globally for wildfires].
“As far as I know, your work is unique in pulling together stories from all over the world. Very sobering but a better and more complete view. Terrific and necessary work. Thank you!” – Simon
“With the inundation of so much depressing news, Justin Panopticon presents it in a succinct format that one can quickly go thru and see the big picture of climate and economics/politics to stay current and if a particle topic is of interest one can delve into the details… I try never to miss any of his posts…I am a Patreon of his work.”
– Karina S.
Search
About This Site
Weekday updates on both climate change and the global economy. Stay current with what’s happening around the world with a quick scan of top news.
“If it seems like this winter has been especially weird in central and northeastern Wisconsin, it might be because of all the record weather events we’ve experienced.
“Before giving way to downpours and strong winds Tuesday, the heat record had been broken for this date three times in Melbourne [Florida], according to the National Weather Service. 
“The National Service of Meteorology and Hydrology [of Bolivia] ssued a red-level hydrological alert for the flooding of at least 15 rivers that threaten to flood more populations in the North of La Paz and at least five departments of the country. 
“The National Meteorological Service of Argentina issued a report on Tuesday morning warning of a new heatwave that will affect Patagonia with high temperatures, which will last from Thursday, February 14 to Sunday, February 17, inclusive. 
“One of the rising uncertainties climate change is bringing to Zimbabwe: The rains have come much later, with the November rainy season beginning as late as January — and when it comes, there’s less of it, sometimes falling for just one day. 
“Severe heatwave conditions along the length of the Queensland coast [Australia] have brought a record-breaking run of high temperatures to the southern inland town of Roma and unrelenting searing weather to Brisbane… 
“A massive dust storm brought “hazardous” air to much of NSW on Wednesday, prompting health warnings from authorities as the cloud headed north to Queensland. 
“Water is emerging as the biggest threat in the Tasman district [NZ] as “desperate” growers face tougher water restrictions earlier than ever. The financial impact on region of the big dry is expected to run into the millions, potentially outstripping the cost of the forest fire still burning in some of the hills and valleys around the plains. 
“Britain is set to bask in glorious sunshine this Valentine’s Day as temperatures continue to push closer to the 60°F mark in the UK. Forecasters have said that some parts of the UK could reach up to 59°F as loved up Brits prepare for the most romantic day of the year. 
“Warmer summers are causing Antarctic ice shelves to ‘bend’ and buckle under the weight of increased water that puts huge pressure on surface lakes, new research has shown. 
“As winter storms pummeled the Hawaiian islands early Monday, they didn’t just bring strong winds, tons of rain and dangerous surf. They also dumped snow in beautiful, usually balmy, normally tropical Maui. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources is reporting that snow is falling at the Polipoli State Park on the the Valley Isle, while the white stuff is forecast in some other parts of the state as well.
“Back-to-back waves of snow dumped over 11 inches of snow on Seattle this weekend, breaking the city’s February snowfall record. 
“Eighteen million trees have died in California since the fall of 2017, even as the state emerged from a years-long drought, according to the USDA Forest Service. 
“Tens of thousands of people in Puerto Rico will face water rationing due to increasingly dry conditions in a U.S. territory still struggling to recover from Hurricane Maria. 
“Three of the nine departments of Bolivia were declared on red alert, due to the imminent risk of flooding as a result of an unusually intense rainy season that left 18 dead, 12 missing and more than 2,000 families affected. “Red alert level: due to considerable rainfall, the rivers of the Mamoré and Beni basins will continue to overflow,” the National Meteorology and Hydrology Service (Senamhi) said in a bulletin.”
“Australia has been hit with extreme weather as scorching heat, strong cold fronts and dust storms sweep the nation. 
“Spare a thought for Andrew Solomon tomorrow as the mercury soars in the Garden City. The concreter will be staying hydrated and hitting the shade when he can, with Toowoomba set to hit 37 degrees – 11 degrees above the average maximum for the month. If the mercury tops 37 degrees, it will break the record for the hottest-ever February day, set in 1983… there will be no relief from the heat, with the bureau forecasting a zero per cent chance of rain.”
“Down in the notoriously vulnerable ice sheet of West Antarctica, Pine Island Glacier seems to be breaking up faster than ever, and it’s looking like 2019 might be another busy year. 
“A new study on ice cores shows that reductions in sea ice in the Arctic in the period between 30-100,000 years ago led to major climate events. 
“The gathering storm of human-caused threats to climate, nature and economy pose a danger of systemic collapse comparable to the 2008 financial crisis [considerably worse in my view, as we are way more indebted, and energy and resource-constrained, and the biosphere is in even greater disarray] according to a new report that calls for urgent and radical reform to protect political and social systems.
“While many bullish (optimistic) investors were attempting to shrug off the European economic slowdown several months ago, including the ECB, claiming a rebound was just around the corner in 2019, the data is here to refute that claim. 
“Since 2010, the UK has endured its slowest economic recovery on record and the outlook is merely worsening… in December the UK economy contracted by 0.4 per cent…. Manufacturing has now contracted for six months in a row, while business investment has fallen for the last four quarters. By historic standards, the UK is due another recession — defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth — and Brexit (and a global trade war) have merely heightened the risk. 
“An investigation has been opened into anti-Semitic graffiti which appeared on the front of a bagel restaurant in central Paris at the weekend. 
“Matteo Salvini has raised the possibility of wresting control of Italy’s sizeable gold reserves away from the country’s central bank in the latest in a series of threats to the independence of the Bank of Italy by Rome’s populist coalition.
“Argentine President Mauricio Macri is fighting economic fires on all fronts. 
“Promises by Nigerian presidential candidates to fix an economy that vies with South Africa’s to be the continent’s largest could be unfulfilled unless the country is weaned off its oil dependence. 
“Zimbabwe’s government was on Monday denied reports that it may introduce a new currency this week, amid fears that such a move would worsen the country’s economic crisis. 
“Companies and executives around the world are desperately trying to gauge the severity of China’s economic slowdown. But getting a clear picture is very difficult… 
Singapore is very much a ‘canary in the coalmine’ for the global economy: 
“Data out this morning show that home loans in Australia slumped by 6.1 per cent in December following a 0.9 per cent decline in the previous month. 
The deflationary spiral beckons:
“There is a significant chance the world economy is headed for a recession in 2019, according to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman. Market participants are increasingly worried about the prospect of a serious economic downturn in the coming months, with a long-running U.S.-China trade war souring business and consumer sentiment.”
“The record books might very well have to be rewritten as farmers in the area of Aroab [of Namibia] measured up to 165 millimetres of rain in the past 24 hours.
“The world’s driest desert is flooding and some of the planet’s wettest woodlands are burning. Welcome to summer in Chile. 
“At least five people were killed and dozens of victims were affected by mudslides in two towns in the Arequipa region of southern Peru, caused by rains in the Andes, officials said Friday. In addition, the Peruvian government on Friday decreed the state of emergency in several municipalities in the southern regions of Moquegua and Tacna (the latter bordering Chile ), due to the “intense rainfall”…”
“The northern hemisphere faced a polar vortex, while Australia during December and January was the hottest on record. 
“In north-west Queensland it hadn’t rained, any decent rain, for more than five years. When the downpour finally came last week, graziers were elated. 
“With Japan’s northernmost main island locked in a deep freeze caused by the coldest air mass ever recorded here, the temperature plunged to a frigid minus 31.8 degrees in Rikubetsu in eastern Hokkaido on Feb. 9… 
“Temperatures with the wind chill will make it feel like it’s between –40 and –50 in some parts of the province, prompting an extreme cold warning from Environment Canada. 
“Some areas around Seattle recieved more than 10 inches of snow Saturday, the most in 70 years, the National Weather Service said, and more is on the way two more storm systems close in on the area… 
“Authorities in Russia’s remote Arctic archipelago of Novaya Zemlya have taken measures to chase away a band of polar bears that had established a reign of terror over locals in recent days. 
“The number of migratory birds coming in from Siberia [to Pakistan] has declined drastically over the past three decades. 
“The continuing Shisper Glacier surge and subsequent creation of a dammed lake has created the fear of another Attabad lake-like disaster in Hunza [Pakistan]. 
A mini-heatwave hitting parts of Spain with temperatures up to 20c (68f) expected. Recent form would suggest that the Iberian peninsular is in for another blisteringly hot summer. 
“Record heat baked southern South America earlier this week as temperatures soared to 90 degrees, the hottest, southernmost temperature on record.
“Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s second-largest city, awoke to scenes of chaos on Thursday after thrashing wind and rain whipped through neighborhoods, felling trees, flooding streets and sweeping away buses in a storm that killed at least six people… 
“A potent storm slammed the central United States on Thursday, bringing a ferocious mix of wild weather from blizzard conditions to flash floods. 
“The record high for Birmingham today is 76, set in 1999 and 1957; we are forecasting a high of 78 this afternoon. 
“Winds with the potential to flare up the huge forest fire near Nelson [New Zealand] are expected to increase over the weekend… 
“Huge chunks of ice have broken off the Tasman Glacier, New Zealand’s largest. 
“Severe thunderstorms have brought lightning and heavy rainfall to Sydney, with almost 50 millimetres falling in some suburbs during a 30-minute deluge… 
“The north-west Queensland floods caused by the same monsoonal rain that put Townsville underwater, have killed up to 300,000 cattle and costs drought-ravaged farmers $300 million. 
“Coldest air mass ever recorded in Hokkaido grips prefecture, with snow expected Saturday in Tokyo… the Meteorological Agency 
“The weather in Hong Kong in the past two days was the warmest ever recorded during the first lunar month of the Year of the Pig. 
“India’s capital Delhi was hit by a strong hailstorm on Thursday, turning the city white and leaving people stunned and delighted. 
“Free State Agriculture (FSA) has welcomed the news that the province [in South Africa] has been declared a drought disaster area… Francois Wilken, FSA president, said expressed concern that any aid that may be forthcoming would arrive too late… 
“A group of top hurricane experts, including several federal researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, published striking new research Thursday, suggesting that hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean have grown considerably worse and that climate change is part of the reason why. The study focused on rapid intensification…”
The frigid air spilling out of the Arctic has been hitting parts of Russia as well as North America:
“Saskatoon shattered a 112 year-old record Wednesday when temperatures fell to – 42.6 C, according to Environment Canada. The previous record was set in 1907 at -41.7 C. 
“Thawing ice from last week’s extreme cold is jamming up rivers in the Midwest and Northeast — causing evacuations and a big, wet mess. Rapid warmups can cause ice jams in rivers. 
“Roughly 9,920 Havana residents were forced from their homes by the tornado that hit the Cuban capital 10 days ago, killing six people, injuring 195 others and damaging more than 4,800 residences, Cuban official media reported on Wednesday. 
“The municipality of Rio de Janeiro decreed on Wednesday night the “state of crisis” due to heavy rains, with winds of up to 110 km per hour, which caused flooding, fell trees and created fear of landslides in favelas. 
“Chile does not manage to get away from extreme weather. 
“The damage bill is rising in Townsville as deadly floodwaters slowly recede and residents begin to mop up in the wake of record-breaking rainfall. 
“Another round of storms is set to hit parts of Victoria today, after hail stones the size of ping-pong balls lashed the state overnight. 
“Water shortages and crop failure caused by record-low rainfalls in Pakistan are forcing some farming families to abandon their land, fleeing what officials say is the worst drought to hit the country in years, while others are selling their last breeding animals or seed stocks to survive.
“Pakistan’s northern and northwestern parts have witnessed record snowfall last month which would help raise the water table in the country, officials said…
““The recent rainfall [in Kwa-Zulul Natal, South Africa] has created a false impression that the drought we experienced from 2015 is over. 
“Billions of tons of meltwater flowing into the oceans from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could boost extreme weather and destabilize regional climate within a matter of decades, researchers said Wednesday.
“The last four years were the hottest since global temperature records began, the UN confirmed on Wednesday in an analysis that it said was a “clear sign of continuing long-term climate change.”
“While 2018 was the fourth-warmest year on record, British meteorologists are predicting the next five years will be much hotter…”